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This is a fairy tale place. The location is breathtaking with a fabulous view of the river. The gardens and structure of the cottages is very English garden. The wisteria is lush, the terraced rose plantings are amazing, the trees are mature and the lawn perfect.

Room Tip: Either of the cottages are sunny and well furnished.

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Stayed: November 2014, travelled as a couple

Location

Cleanliness

Service

Ask hqalley about Trelawn Place

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This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC

We had breathtaking views of the river, beautiful surrounding gardens and wonderful hosts Michael and Nery as well as the resident corgis! We had activities planned in queenstown but cancelled them so that we could enjoy the atmosphere at Trelawn.

We will definitely return!

Stayed: December 2014, travelled as a couple

Ask jozabella about Trelawn Place

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This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC

Trelawn, Owner at Trelawn Place, responded to this reviewResponded 25 December 2014

Thank you for the review, we look forward to seeing you again in the future.

Report response as inappropriateThank you. We appreciate your input.

This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of TripAdvisor LLC

I have taken considerable time to think about and write the below honest account of our time at Trelawn Place. We wish no malice, my only hope is that you, the traveler, reads the below and can make a safer, more informed decision about whether you would risk staying at this location. We also appreciate the hosts have the last say within this forum, so it will be interesting to see how they react to the below account. However, we stand by everything that is written below as being an honest account of time spent at Trelawn.

Judging from the responses the hosts provided in this forum previously, in response to constructive criticism, it does make me wonder why they’re even in the business of hosting as they appear to take NO responsibility for any wrong doing…with anything, they always seem to have some type of excuse.

The Good

Beautifully kept grounds and clearly the owners have a passion for horticulture and landscaping. The heating, linen and facilities within the self-contained apartment were appropriate for the price point. The location was in good proximity to Queenstown and to Arrow Town as it is on a road that links the two (8 min to Queenstown via car, approx. 15min to Arrow Town and regularly serviced by a bus link). Take note the driveway is gravel so if you have a car it must be able to handle this.

The Bad

I am a dog friendly person, I have lived with dogs, I have lived with people that train dogs, I know about dogs. They have three dogs that are extremely badly trained. This is not in a sense that they are messy, I am meaning that they are disobedient and the owners do little to control them. You as the guest has to control whether they stay in/out of the apartments, you as the guest has to control their noise levels. They will walk into the rental property if you are not watching so leaving doors open and unattended is not an option. Also if eating outside they will come and sit at the table expecting to get food scraps and whine/bark which is downright annoying, again you as the guest would have to shoo them away. This only occurs with dogs that have not been trained to not beg.

All dogs bark, this is natural, what is not natural is incessant uncontrollably loud barking dogs. This is what you will face if staying here. Whenever someone new appeared on the property and every morning at the crack of dawn until about 10am is when they would bark and then sometimes just randomly. We were out most days so cannot account as to whether this occurred past 10am. It was a domino effect, if one of them started, the other two would follow suit and the owners would just ignore them or politely try and quiet them down. This in essence is bad training. As I know dogs I was able to control them when required – but by me having to take this role, it negatively impacted our stay. They need to seriously address this issue, as it is a dog friendly property yes – but it is not a human friendly property when their dogs are onsite.

The owners take great pleasure in “working the land” in the mornings. This means, if the lawns need to be mowed, or ground work needed to be undertaken then it would commence well before 10am in the morning…and loudly so. Great if you wanted a sleep in – NOT.

Two weddings were held on the property during our stay which completely dominated the entire property. We were not told in advance that the weddings were going to be held there either. That is atrocious customer service. Had they not dominated the entire property it would not have been such an unpleasant situation, however you cannot avoid them. What this meant was that if you are staying at the property, and not part of the function, basically you are trapped in your room or you have to leave the property. There is no getting away from it. They set up right on the lawn in front of your apartment and also guests walk straight past the front / back doors of your apartment. Having intoxicated people you don’t know randomly dropping by to have a ‘chat’ was not what we were paying for whilst staying there, but this is what we got. Attempting to go and have a spa, eat outside, relax inside – none of this is an option if a wedding is booked at the property. Also, the wedding set up starts at the crack of dawn on the day, so a sleep-in is simply out of the question. It is daylight robbery to expect patrons to pay for accommodation, when you cannot enjoy all of the facilities the place has to offer. It is also downright rude not to alert your, guests prior to booking. Common courtesy is clearly not in the hosts repertoire.

The Downright Ugly

I had organised to stay an extra night which the hosts had forgot about, even after putting it in writing to them and them agreeing this was fine. This was easily resolved via a discussion with the host and a discounted rate was offered for the last night which was a pleasant surprise. Upon leaving the hosts and I shared a hug and they provided the account details and I was to transfer the agreed value when I arrived home.

This is where their conduct gets extremely concerning and you need to be very wary. We returned home to find an email claiming that during our stay we had damaged their toaster (by melting it) and the kitchen bench top had been scratched up. They also requested more money than they quoted for the last night of accommodation. Stunned is an understatement. We ate out all but one night and used the toaster regularly in a normal fashion. Also worth noting, there was a chopping board provided in the apartment which was used…on that one night of cooking. So in no way did we do any damage – at all. Without doubt they were not interested in any other resolution other than ‘we were in the wrong’ and ‘they were in the right’. They went on to also imply that “Clearly had the bench looked like this when you arrived, you would have said something” which basically means because we, the guests, DIDN’T notice it, and didn’t make THEM aware - then it must have been our fault.

I am not sure about you dear reader, but I don’t go on holiday and do a full inspection of every single flaw within a property upon arrival, that is surely a host responsibility. To further elaborate on this point, they replaced kitchen towels and bath towels on a daily basis….surely THEY would have seen this apparent scratching then and let us know? Surely if a toaster had melted, they’d have smelt it! Complete lies.

We were nothing but honest during our stay, when two glasses broke we promptly told them the same day and were quite prepared to pop into town and get them a new set, this being the actions of honest people, such as us. They were polite and did not take our money, and put the glasses down to wear and tear. This is why we struggled with the audacity of them when they accused us of damage when we had treated their property with the utmost respect. It annoyed us greatly and left us with an incredibly negative view of them as hosts and prompted the writing of this detailed review.

In conclusion, after much consideration between my friend and I we decided to take the high road and pay $100 as a goodwill gesture as we didn’t need this stress to continue any longer. We decided that we would put our real frustration into this forum so that the general public would be made aware. We also stated clearly to them that this was NOT an admission of fault but a gesture of good will to close the matter. We also clearly mentioned that we would do a direct credit to their account and that we did not authorise them to use their payment facility for a card not present transaction. I wouldn't trust them to do this type of transaction if my life depended on it. Clearly reading other Trip Advisor reviews, others have had issues in this area.

I would never recommend anyone staying here as the risk is far too high, you cannot trust these people. It is scapegoat dishonest behaviour to treat your guests with smiles and niceness, offer discounted room rates – then once they are out of earshot accuse them of property damage, claim monetary reimbursement and also attempt to overcharge them. It’s simply not kiwi. It has been the worst hosting I have ever experienced in New Zealand. We have personally told all our friends about this place and will continue to share the above experience for a long time to ensure others are made aware of the dishonesty of these hosts and the false pretenses they give guests. My advice, steer well clear.

Room Tip: Wifi was slow and unreliable. My advice is stay well clear!

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Stayed: November 2014, travelled with friends

Location

Cleanliness

Service

Ask Kiwi_Tripping about Trelawn Place

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This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC

Trelawn, Owner at Trelawn Place, responded to this reviewResponded 13 December 2014

Thank you for your comments, we trust your injury has completely healed.

Report response as inappropriateThank you. We appreciate your input.

This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of TripAdvisor LLC

Gorgeous! Great view and weather. Very cosy living space. Great BQQ. No oven. Great spa. Pedro's House is where it's at. 0800 NZ LAMB. Very close to Coronet Peak. Beautiful view from the deck. Warm and sunny even in the middle of winter. Jet boats going by add to the experience.

Stayed: August 2014, travelled as a couple

Value

Location

Service

Ask Mikeller9859 about Trelawn Place

1 Thank Mikeller9859

This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC

This was our first family holiday with the dog, so finding dog-friendly accommodation was a little tricky over the Easter break....but the hosts here welcome well behaved dogs, and were happy for the dog to sleep inside with us. They have corgis of their own who roam the place and will come inside for a nosy if you leave the door open.

The actual property is quite stunning with a lovely garden and lawn area and great spa pool overlooking the Shotover River.

The self-contained apartment was a little dated and the kitchen utensils/cutlery/crockery/glassware needed a good clean after previous guests hadn't been so thorough with cleaning.

But all in all we were happy and had a great family holiday.

Stayed: April 2014, travelled with family

Value

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Sleep Quality

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Ask RachelAKnz about Trelawn Place

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This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC

Trelawn, Owner at Trelawn Place, responded to this reviewResponded 5 June 2014

Thank you for your review, we take note of your of comments.We would have liked to give you the cottage, as it's better for the kids space wise. It's nice to be able to help those people with pets, as we know how hard it is for ourselves.

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This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of TripAdvisor LLC

Trelawn Place is a country home 5 minutes (4km) drive from central Queenstown. 11 Km from the Queenstown Airport. (20 Minutes). We offer luxury self contained accommodation in our very popular Cherry tree house, our honeymoon cottage that can sleep four people and our garden apartment can sleeps three. All in a very private location,we are very popular for weddings. Nery and Michael are well traveled hosts....more less

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